Music promo timeline

 1960’s

 Bob Dylan “Subterranean Blues”

This promo was taken in one continuous shot. No miming, colour or edits were put into this video. We could infer from this that Bob Dylan wanted the video to be all about the lyrics to the song, allowing the audience to interpret a narrative themselves. It was incredibly simplistic and although colour had been in cinema over 20 years in the 60's, Bob Dylan insisted in black and white recording.

 

1970’s

 The Beatles “Strawberry Fields”

 Many different shot types were incorporated into this video. They used miming to give the effect of singing the song within the promo and the use of colour has been put it. Filters were used to give effects of strong colours. The use of reverse was put in through editing. The promo seems like as many effects as possible were put in, this leaves the audience feeling slightly dizzy and over whelmed, it could be giving the impression of being on drugs as the 60’s/70’s were known as the “hippy phase.”  

 

 The Monkee’s- Constructed band, they included things such as wacky comedy, jump cuts and surrealism.

 

 Queen “Bohemium Rhapsody”

 This is the first recognised video to be a pop promo. It has a non-linear narrative and uniformity costumes. This allows the audience to recognise the band as equals in unison in comparison to individual artists. It makes the people watching become the audience at their concert, giving us a flavour of their ability to play live, advertising ticket sales. Front and back lighting was used within the promo to highlight the band in a shot and show their faces, but no other part of them, focusing us on their mouth’s miming the lyrics making us involved with the words.

 

 MTV 1981

 When it first opened, it was a niche market for white male rock acts. It could be accused of unwelcoming to the black recording artists due to its limited market.

 It was around this time that artists started to spend a staggering amount of money on making a music promo. Duran Duran spent $1 million to make “Wild Boys”

 

Michael Jackson “Thriller” 1990’s

This video was seen as ground breaking. It was a 13 minute mini movie, as well as a music promo. It included things such as choreographed dances fitting the beat of the song, lip sinking in perfect time with a fitting narrative that attracts the audience. It included both narrative and performance within the video advertising seeing Michael Jackson live. It became number 1 in the charts and showed Michael Jackson to be in a different league to any other artist of the time.


Modern day artists
 Maroon 5